Ornithology II

For the February 3rd show, I featured more music from a mix that my future father-in-law, David, put together. Some of the artists included: Bert Jansch, Charles & Inez Foxx, Annie Lennox, Elvis Costello, Bobby Day, Harry Connick, Jr., and more!!

For the first installment of Ornithology, click here.

Happy Birthday NYSK!

It's the 1st anniversary of NYSK and on January 27th, we celebrated by listening to various birthday songs and talking about organisms that live a loooooong time. For example, Prometheus is a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine that is estimated to be nearly 5000 years old! And in the animal world, researchers have dated a quahog clam from Iceland at 405-years-old!

All this talk of golden oldies led to the topic of aging and how it goes down in the cells. We heard a clip from the Naked Scientist Africa podcast series about how aging occurs. We also learned about negligible senescence, a phenomenon in which animals tend not to show signs of aging.

As for the news...

• Running shoes protect feet, but jog joints
• Is there really such thing as a mid-life crisis?
• Research expedition into truth behind Japanese whaling 
• Fossils reveal feathers of dinosaurs were orange

Musical artists included Weird Al, The Beatles, Sonic Youth, The United States of America, Joan Baez, Azure Ray, Tortoise, Bert Jansch, Doc Watson, Caliexico, Blonde Redhead, Badly Drawn Boy, and Andrew Bird.

We finished off the night with an awesome a capella version of Toto's Africa by Perpetuum Jazzile. They make rain with their fingers and thunder with their feet!

10 Mysteries of You

Is there an evolutionary explanation for why we pick our noses? How about why we laugh... or enjoy art? On the January 20th show, I shared New Scientist's 10 Things We Don't Understand About Humans, an article that suggests some hypotheses for why humans blush, are superstitious, have such an extended adolescent period, and more! A common theme among many of these explanations is the idea that these behaviors and characteristics are adaptive in some way. Although I think some of the hypotheses will likely gain support through empirical testing, it is important to point out that not all explanations in nature must come from an adaptationist's perspective. Sometimes we see characters that are maladaptive or neutral in a population, which means that they do not necessarily provide a selective advantage for the individual that possesses them. There are few cases in nature in which a singular process explains the patterns we see. It is often the job of scientists not to determine which explanation overrules the others, but to determine the relative importance of each explanation.

We ran out of time for the news in nature and sound quiz, but we heard form some great artists such as The Books, Tori Amos, Travis, Sam Cooke, Headlights, Misfits, Basement Jaxx, Grand National, Blockhead, and others.

Holy biodiversity, Batman!

For the January 13th show, we wrapped up 2009 by talking about TIME's top ten new species discovered during the year. One of my favorites included Ratzilla (pictured left), a 3-foot long rat found on New Guinea. Other awesome finds were glow-in-the-dark mushrooms and the bones of the world's largest (and sadly extinct) snake, Titanoboa cerrejonensis.

As for the news, we heard about:

• a natural pot-like compound that could fight obesity
• a crustacean that eats wood
• how a sewage leak might threaten the Buffalo National River

For the sound quiz, we listened to some creatures of the Buffalo River that might be affected by the sewage leak: Louisiana Waterthrush, Belted Kingfisher (one of my all time favortie birds!), Southern Leopard Frog, River Otter, and the Raccoon.

Artists featured included: Daft Punk, Ratatat, Can, Feist, The Microphones, TV on the Radio, The Flaming lips, Dinosaur Jr., Minuit, Robert Johnson, and a Hawk and a Hacksaw.

I'm meeeelting!

Since climate change was on the minds of many around the world this week, on the December 16th show we heard a Nature Stories podcast about the effects of warming on the arctic. One of the most dramatic effects can be seen in the satellite images above. These photos show the reduction of sea ice during winter months from the years 1979 to 2007. Continuous sea ice is important habitat for many of the mammals living in the arctic, such as polar bears, seals, and foxes. We also briefly talked about some of the major goals of the UN Conference on Climate Change that took place Dec 7-18th in Copenhagen.

In the news...

• A gene stops ovaries from testifying
• Water-rich planet discoveed
• Can an octopus use tools?
• Pet frogs are a source of Salmonella

For the sound quiz, we heard vocalizations of critters of the arctic such as the arctic fox, harp seal, and caribou.

As for music, we heard from the artists: Robyn, Arctic Monkeys, Radiohead, Damien Jurado, Weezer, The Pixies, and The Who.

Farm animal conservation? Why I never...

In the December 9th show, we covered a random smattering of things, including the conservation of our farming heritage. We listened to a podcast from the Nature Conservancy series Nature Stories entitled "Philosophy of Pig". In this story, we heard from a woman who was laid off from her environmental policy job. Instead of finding a similar job, she decided to raise an endangered breed of swine called the Large Black Pig. She has found happiness in the more hands-on career switch and feels she is still working in the conservation field.

We also learned about the  Christmas Bird Count, organized by the Audubon Society each December. This event offers a chance for citizens to help with a bird survey effort that has been going on for over 100 years. Each year, recreational and professional ornithologists gather all over the Americas to count bird communities, compile the data, and share the information. To get involved, contact your local Audubon Society to find trip leaders. If you live in Northwest Arkansas, visit our regional Audubon's homepage.

Here are some news stories from the week:

• Male fruit flies' love for junk in the trunk might be selecting against fatter females
• Backyard bird feeding in the UK might drive speciation in European Blackcaps
  
• A way to count bird populations using only auditory footprints 

No sound quiz this week, but we did learn how to identify different wood warblers by their song. We also heard from musical artists such as: Elbow, Talking Heads, The Books, The Soft Machine, Feist, The Violent Femmes, Miles Davis, Reeltime Travelers, and Andrew Bird.

Nature and the Apocalypse

On the December 2nd show, I discussed several authors' takes on what life would be like for humans and nature after the apocalypse. First we talked about the new film "The Road" based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy. In this story, a father and son make a journey through a post-apocalyptic world in which the sun is obscured by ash and plants and most animals have perished. Humans are pushed to their limits and have turned to cannibalism. It is a story of what humans will do to survive, both physically and emotionally.

We also heard some passages from the Kurt Vonnegut book "Galapagos". In this tale, the human population experiences a severe bottleneck event in which only a handful of fertile humans are left to continue the species after a disease renders most humans infertile. This motley crew of humans is shipwrecked on an island in the Galapagos archipelago. The story is told millions of years later from the viewpoint of ghost that inhabited the ship on which they traveled. At this point, humans have evolved to be coastal creatures that use their flippers and teeth to procure food from the ocean. As with most Vonnegut books, readers will laugh at the silliness of the characters, yet be uncomfortable with how much they can identify with their problems. For another laugh, we also heard from the comedian George Carlin who had some strong opinions on human arrogance exhibited when we try to "save the planet".


Finally, we heard an interview from the NY Times with author Alan Weisman who wrote "The World Without Us". In this book, Weisman explores how nature would take back the earth if the human population suddenly disappeared one day.

As for the news...

• Your skin helps you hear!
• Shoot a cyclist, get 4 months in jail. 
• Help pick the world's ugliest bug!

Music for this episode included: DJ Shadow, Doc Watson, Cat Stevens, M. Ward, Radiohead, Grandaddy, Islands, Mirah, and more.

Test Hiatus No More

NYSK has been on hiatus for 3 weeks because I have been taking comprehensive exams for my doctoral program. The written portion is now over and I have just the oral exam left. As you can see by the posts below, I have been playing catch-up today and hopefully will be back regularly, even through the holidays.

Close the loop!

Humans are trashy... it's a natural fact. In the November 4th show, we learned about some human events that should probably have their own landfill! What are humans doing to deal with all the trash we generate? We could just throw it all away, or we could take three easy steps: Recycle, Reduce, Reuse... and close the loop! You can reduce and reuse by making smart decisions when it comes to purchasing. For example, avoid products with excessive packaging (reduce) and use cloth shopping bags (reuse).

Unfortunately for recycling, the success of this effort is partially determined by the facilities and services available to citizens. The city of Fayetteville, AR (home to KXUA) has had great success with its curbside recycling program, and we talked about some of the guidelines for what exactly can be placed in the green bins. The University of Arkansas campus has an active recycling program that is now sometimes extended to cover big events, such as football games (see Recycling with the Razorbacks).

As for the news, we heard about:

• a murderer with an "aggression gene" getting his sentence cut
• 82 healthy sea turtles hatch at SeaWorld in San Diego
• fellatio in fruit bats prolongs copulation time

No sound quiz this week, but we heard from the likes of Modest Mouse, Sonic Youth, The Cramps, G. Love, Grandaddy, The Faint, Bloc Party, Trinity Roots, and more.

In nature, there are scarier things than ghosts!

In the October 28th show, we learned about bark and wood boring insects such as the European Elm Bark Beetle (Scolytus multistriatus), which is nonnative to the United States. This beetle is a vector for Dutch Elm Disease (DED), caused by a fungus which is transported via the water carrying vessels (i.e. xylem) of elm trees. In response, the tree plugs up its own xylem, thus stopping the movement of the fungus, but unfortunately also blocking movement of water and nutrients. An infected tree eventually loses its leaves prematurely and experiences branch dieback. Elms are commonly planted in urban areas because of their beautiful shape, so the effects of DED are quite visible. Treatment only prolongs the life of the tree at best, so research is currently underway to develop DED-resistant elms.

There are many stories of invasive insects in the U.S. that are changing our forests. For more information on such insects, visit the Forest Pests website. One thing you can do to help prevent the spread of damaging insects, particularly those that bore into wood, is to only burn firewood in areas where it originated, i.e. don't move firewood.

We also learned about the history of pumpkin carving and heard about some recent tidbits from nature:

• Naked mole rats beat cancer
• Ten-foot great white shark nearly bitten in half by a twenty-foot great white shark!
• Do men prefer a pretty face or a hot body?

For the sound quiz, we heard from some traditionally scary beasts such as vampire bats, screech owls, ravens, wolves, and mountain lions. Music featured included David Bowie, Aphex Twin, Mogwai, Blur, Starlight Mints, Devendra Banhart, Liz Phair, Yo La Tengo, and more!